Bansko municipality is opening the new summer tourist season with 10,700 reservations for the hotels, private rooms, holiday homes and huts, Bansko municipality. The mountain resort’s occupancy rate has increased by 3,200 beds compared to September 2006, Bansko’s mayor Alexander Kravarov said, quoted by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).

The winter and summer season have almost fused here, Kravarov said. The winter season ended on 15 April, and the summer season starts in the end of May, the mayor added. This summer too the summer in the town and the region will continued, but Kravarov assured there will no longer be trucks in the town because a special organization for the movement of trucks and building equipment has been created and they will move down the encircling roads.

Yanka Rahova, chairperson of the Union of Tourist Business in Bansko, said local hotel managers have kept their prices unchanged for years. A bed in a family hotel or a two-star hotel costs 12 leva, and for a three-star hotel the price is 30-40 leva, Rahova said.

We offer very good conditions for four-day or week-long holidays with opportunities for mountain hiking and marches in Pirin mountain, fishing, horse riding in the village of Bachevo and Razlog, excursions to the Rila Monastery, Rozhen Monastery, Melnik, Leshten, Kovachevitza, the Park for readaptation of dancing bears near Belitza, the Yagodina cave and other natural, cultural, historical and architectural landmarks in Southwest Bulgaria. Bansko guests can visit about 150 cultural monuments in the region.

Bansko’s mayor Alexander Kravarov announced the municipality plans to launch a program for the repair of the 170-year old St. Trinity temple in the town.

This year the pantheon of Pisii in the town is also planned to be finished. A duplicate of the cell, in which Paisii wrote the famous “Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya (Slavonic-Bulgarian History), will be built in the pantheon, as well as a duplicate of the St. Ivan Rilski chapel in Aton.

The municipal government in Bansko also announced there would be another fold festival this summer after the fourth edition of the traditional authentic folklore festival “Between Three Mountains” which is organized for the opening of the new summer tourist season. The town will also host the international jazz festival between 8 and 13 August.

The international mountain film festival will also be organized, which expects its special guests this year – Reinhold Messner – the first conqueror of the 14 8,000-meter summits in the world, who also climbed all the highest summits in Europe.

A number of attractive sport events are also planned for this summer. The guests of Bansko will have a chance to see a round of the world Canadian hand-to-hand combat, as well as competition for strong men, which will aired on the Eurosport TV channel.

Kravarov also said Bansko municipality intends to sign a contract with an Austrian company, which produces the cultural and sport events in the famous Kitzbuhel resort. The idea is to assign the company the management of both the cultural and sport program of the Bulgarian mountain resort.